The Conveyancing Association (CA), which is the leading trade body for the conveyancing industry, has urged the government to move forwards with delivering promised leasehold reforms.

Today’s Conveyancer reports that there are several measures which the Government had yet to action into legislation, despite promising to do so. These include the following:

• A fixed maximum fee payable of £200 and delivery within two weeks for the Leasehold Property Enquiry 1 (LPE1) form.
• The banning of the sale of leasehold houses.
• Removal of S.8(2) Law of Property Act from Estate Rentcharges so they cannot be converted to long leases if the rentcharge is not paid whether requested or not.
• The capping of existing ground rents to the limits in the Housing Act 1988 to prevent long leases becoming assured shorthold tenancies.
• A right to extend leases by 990 years.
• Removing marriage and development value from the lease enfranchisement calculation.

The CA additionally calls for leaseholders to have the right to convert their property to Commonhold and take control of the management of shared areas and amenities. The article states the Law Commission made these recommendations in its report of July 2020, and they were supported by the Government.

Beth Rudolf, Director of Delivery at the CA, commented: “There may be an assumption that while the noise has died down around leasehold a lot, the problems have gone away. That is certainly not the case and we now need to maintain the momentum that has been built up and finally get solutions to these problems on the statute book.”

Although the Government has set up a Commonhold Council to explore ways of delivering the pledges, the CA has urged for swifter and more decisive action on the matter. It recently carried out a survey which showed that consumers are overwhelmingly in favour of a move to Commonhold.

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